You need to know who your competition is and what websites they own and operate. Many of your competitors will have multiple websites, this is the new thing out there. They focus each website on a division of their business. Make sure you review each and every website that they have in detail.
Not only review their products and services, but also the USP (Unique Selling Proposition), and find out how you can effectively compete on the web. Don’t expect your web design company to do this for you unless you are willing to pay them to do it. In almost every case, the business owner, is the ideal person to be reviewing their competitors websites. Take notes when you are reviewing the site, this way you can refer to the notes when you begin making changes to your site(s).
Do not be afraid to act upon your notes and have your web design company make changes to your site to effectively compete. Be sure to have a clear discussion with the company to make certain that they understand the intention of the change and can also review the competitor site to see how they are handleing the back code portion for you to compete naturally in the search engines.